Household Wards

Welcome back to Ancient Runes! Today we’ll be discussing something that hits a little closer to home. We’ll be talking about household wards, how to use them and the history behind them.

Earlier on through the centuries of wizarding history, many houses and homes have fallen victim to vandalism because of household wards being infamous for breaking and burning out all too easily. Over the centuries, the improvements made to household wards have advanced them to a whole new level, almost to a point where they have become something else entirely from what they were when they first began to be used. One difference that enhances the power of a rune is the tool used to create it. This is vital knowledge to use when deciding to create your own household rune. Before you ask, no, this will not take effect in the common room because that space is shared with many kids from various wizarding and muggle families. The tools needed to successfully create a household ward is simple. Mortise chisels are the preferred tool used when carving runes and more specifically, household wards. Mortise chisels are heavy chisels, thicker than they are wide, with oval beech or oak handles. However, you will find them very easy to handle and a joy to use. With the handles made out of a specific type of wood, using that chisel on the same wood to carve a rune will cause an undesired backfire against the runesmith. If you’re using this kind of chisel, you will be at a more advanced level to where you would be using sturdier mediums, preferably not wooden. To those who choose to use your wand for runes; don’t. Carving with wands increases the burnout rate as the formation of the runes are already saturated in magic. Another means of carving would include the art of burning or branding. The common mistake that many witches and wizards made when first using household wards was using their own wands to burn the runes into the woodwork of the house. The runes were very quick to burn out and fall apart, crumbling the portion of the house that the warding was staged in. These are the worst-known situations that have the potential of backfiring on a witch or wizarding attempting to carve household wards.

The main focus while creating a household ward is to the cardinal placement of runes and how they interact with the magical flows of energy. North, South, East, and West are the four main points that you will draw magic from. Skill level is an important contributing factor to creating a household ward but the main focus is on the cardinal points used to draw purified or semi-purified magic to the house’s warding. A single rune will mark the spot of one cardinal point. Each direction will have a rune assigned to it. It is of utmost importance that each step of creating a ward is followed or there may be dire consequences. This is the first step to a potentially very intricate process of warding. Assigning a singular rune to each cardinal point will provide a very basic form of a household ward. In addition to the cardinal points, the intermediate points with their own singular rune will ensure a steady warding system for the house. To what sort of warding you would prefer for your home depends on the runes used for each of the cardinal and intermediate points. Lastly, to finish off the basic warding whether it be the cardinal points alone or paired with the intermediate points, there must be some sort of magical flow that connects each of the points to each other. An example of this could be a line physically carved into the surface of the wall, connecting to but not breaking through each of the runes would suffice. Layering runes would improve the quality and duration of the warding. Another form of doing so would be to use a repetitive pattern of using two or more runes connecting to link all of the cardinal points and or the intermediate points. The intermediate points alone will have little to no effect, if anything at all.

Various types of housing wards include alarms, physical shields, obscuring, fire, insects, flooding and muggle repelling. Just about any type of warding you can imagine can be made possible. Lastly, there are temporary and long-term wards. These are also called passive and active. Like all runes, passive wards will leave a scar on the house itself and the magic will linger until it completely drains out to find another source to cling to or until it is needed again. Active household wards will continue to keep in or keep out the pest, being, or weather that are inscribed in runes. To conclude, household wards take a lot of theoretical and practical practice before performing on a standing inhabited house.
Homework:

Write about your experience creating a household ward. What kind of ward is it? What runes do you use and how do you do it? 6+ pages.
Write a story about the history of warding and how it progressed through the ages. Discuss the history of vandalism. No page limit.
Research medieval or old houses and record what you think could improve them. Then write about what warding would best fit this and keep in or out what it needs. No page limit.